Carte de L’Ocean Meridional (Atlantic Ocean)

Description

hand-coloured outline colour copper engraving, with a decorative cartouche.

An uncommon map from ‘Histoire Generale des Voyages…’. The map shows the Atlantic Ocean as seen from the Equator extending southward from the coastline of Eastern South America with Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Rio de la Plata, ‘and Magellan Strait – to the West Coast of Africa till Cape of Good Hope. Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772) was one of the most important and proficient French cartographers of the mid-eighteenth century. He was appointed the first Ingenieur Hydrographe de la Marine, and also Official Hydrographer to the French king. Bellin produced a substantial number of important separately issued maps, particularly reflecting continuing discoveries and political events in the Americas.